E. Guigal, Côtes du Rhône (Rhône Valley, France) 2019

 To me, the mark of a great producer lies in their least expensive wine.  Of course, Guigal is rightly known for their mind-boggling La La’s, small single-vineyard wines, La Mouline, La Landonne, and La Turque, from the Côte Rôtie, whose approximate 20,000-bottle combined annual production is highly allocated and sells for hundreds of dollars a bottle.  By contrast, they produce about 4.5 million bottles of consistently excellent and affordable red Côtes du Rhône.  The 2019 follows their tradition of delivering more than the price suggests.  A blend of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre, Guigal’s Côtes du Rhône displays a polished smoothness enveloping dark fruit accented by black pepper notes.  It is a broad-shouldered red with a glossy texture than makes it an ideal choice this summer for meat from the grill.